Research Interest

The magnitude of available genetic data to address evolutionary questions and the sheer unlimited potential for various analyses fascinates me. During my PhD I address questions to understand local adaptation in humans. Whenever possible I try to combine my population genetic analyses with immunity related questions as I earned my diploma (masters equivalent) in immunology.

I pursue several, partially connected projects during my PhD. First, is a candidate-driven analyses of natural selection in interferon lambda 4 (IFNL4). We could show that a truncating variant in IFNL4, a variant strongly associated with Hepatitis C clearance, evolved under positive selection from a de-novo mutation with selection strength varying across human populations. Second, we use genome-wide approaches to understand human population differentiation.